Okay so I have not rolled dice since February...........
I live in Nottingham in the UK and we have gone into local lockdown for the forseeable future
I need to game
D&D beyond looks good but I am new to the digital gaming lark and am trying to figure out if you can run an entire campaign through the tools on here
I have even come to terms with the idea of buying books again that I have in hardcopy (PHB on a code form the starter set, and last year's Black Friday they reduced the books)
It would be really cool if I could run an entire campaign using D&D Beyond just not sure how or if it is even possible for I am a Grognard that wishes to join the 21st Century
Some people use a virtual tabletop (VTT) to replace figures on a physical table top. dndbeyond doesn't provide this. Look to systems like roll20 or Foundry or any of many others for this.
If you generally play as "theatre of the mind", through describing your actions, then dndbeyond will work just fine.
You would need some way for your players to talk to each other - possibly Teams or Discord can provide this. (They also provide video if all players have web cameras.)
We use Discord, DNDBeyond and Roll20 to recreate as best as possible that feeling we had when we were all together around one table (of course, we got a head start on the lockdown because all of my players moved to other states after they graduated with their masters). DNDBeoynd is great with VTTs like Roll20, especially with the Beyond20 add on to your browser allowing you to simply click on the character sheet and the dice rolls translate to the tabletop. That is one of the most challenging aspects of the VTTs is figuring out how to make character sheets work and keeping info in multiple places at once... this is now gone... keep it in DNDBeyond.
Your level of pain depends on your (or your groups) willingness to pay to play. You can do the majority of it for free, but your experience is better if someone pays for the services. DNDBeyond - Master's Tier allows sharing of any purchased items. Especially useful if someone has the Legendary bundle. Roll20 - Pro subsciption allows for Fog of War and some really cool effects... not necessary, but enjoyable if everyone can handle the extra load. Roll20 - Modules. Yes, each one has it's own way of monetizing the same resource. However, if you are playing a campaign and intend to stick to it fairly closely, the amount of maps and tokens and monsters make the game MUCH simpler to run as long as you understand your layers and such.
Again, you don't have to do any of that. For the best experience... you could easily end up paying for all of that. So that is totally up to you. The DM without the modules can do the same things but will spend a significant amount of time getting ready for the game each session.
We ended up with a mix of things. I already had the Legendary bundle before we ever started, so it was easy to share out and everyone had all the options when building characters. Super simple, super easy. When I DM, I'm a Pro subscriber on Roll20, so I use Fog of War. Our current DM said "Phooey to that!" and spends a lot of time juggling squares and things in revealing maps to us. It works. He usually gets frustrated every week cause he also grabs the tokens, but, he is adamant he doesn't want to pay for anything. I've also run a module with my bride and it made it very simple for me to just pick up and go each week when we were able to sit down and I spent more time enjoying the game than prepping for it as I had already played the module.
Discord doesn't really need a payment unless someone wants to boost your server for better audio.
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Okay so I have not rolled dice since February...........
I live in Nottingham in the UK and we have gone into local lockdown for the forseeable future
I need to game
D&D beyond looks good but I am new to the digital gaming lark and am trying to figure out if you can run an entire campaign through the tools on here
I have even come to terms with the idea of buying books again that I have in hardcopy (PHB on a code form the starter set, and last year's Black Friday they reduced the books)
It would be really cool if I could run an entire campaign using D&D Beyond just not sure how or if it is even possible for I am a Grognard that wishes to join the 21st Century
Thanks
Some people use a virtual tabletop (VTT) to replace figures on a physical table top. dndbeyond doesn't provide this. Look to systems like roll20 or Foundry or any of many others for this.
If you generally play as "theatre of the mind", through describing your actions, then dndbeyond will work just fine.
You would need some way for your players to talk to each other - possibly Teams or Discord can provide this. (They also provide video if all players have web cameras.)
We use Discord, DNDBeyond and Roll20 to recreate as best as possible that feeling we had when we were all together around one table (of course, we got a head start on the lockdown because all of my players moved to other states after they graduated with their masters). DNDBeoynd is great with VTTs like Roll20, especially with the Beyond20 add on to your browser allowing you to simply click on the character sheet and the dice rolls translate to the tabletop. That is one of the most challenging aspects of the VTTs is figuring out how to make character sheets work and keeping info in multiple places at once... this is now gone... keep it in DNDBeyond.
Your level of pain depends on your (or your groups) willingness to pay to play. You can do the majority of it for free, but your experience is better if someone pays for the services.
DNDBeyond - Master's Tier allows sharing of any purchased items. Especially useful if someone has the Legendary bundle.
Roll20 - Pro subsciption allows for Fog of War and some really cool effects... not necessary, but enjoyable if everyone can handle the extra load.
Roll20 - Modules. Yes, each one has it's own way of monetizing the same resource. However, if you are playing a campaign and intend to stick to it fairly closely, the amount of maps and tokens and monsters make the game MUCH simpler to run as long as you understand your layers and such.
Again, you don't have to do any of that. For the best experience... you could easily end up paying for all of that. So that is totally up to you. The DM without the modules can do the same things but will spend a significant amount of time getting ready for the game each session.
We ended up with a mix of things. I already had the Legendary bundle before we ever started, so it was easy to share out and everyone had all the options when building characters. Super simple, super easy. When I DM, I'm a Pro subscriber on Roll20, so I use Fog of War. Our current DM said "Phooey to that!" and spends a lot of time juggling squares and things in revealing maps to us. It works. He usually gets frustrated every week cause he also grabs the tokens, but, he is adamant he doesn't want to pay for anything. I've also run a module with my bride and it made it very simple for me to just pick up and go each week when we were able to sit down and I spent more time enjoying the game than prepping for it as I had already played the module.
Discord doesn't really need a payment unless someone wants to boost your server for better audio.